At the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) market, the domestic unit opened better at 53.40 a dollar from overnight close of 53.47. It immediately touched a high of 53.34 on initial rise in local stocks but the gains vanished quickly.

Though FIIs pumped in around $47 million in stocks on Tuesday, the rupee failed to recover due to overwhelming dollar demand from oil importers as Brent North Sea crude for delivery in December fell to $109.21 a barrel.

The rupee fell back to a low of 53.84, before concluding better at 53.72 — a fall of 25 paise or 0.46 per cent.